Capitol Hill restaurants, bars, shops, etc., send us your lists. Bestsellers, etc — we’ll share them here. Send a note to chs@capitolhillseattle.com. The latest top sellers from 10th Ave’s Elliott Bay Book Co. are below. We also have information on a free Wednesday night event that should be a fun way to experience Seattle writer Sherman Alexie.

By the way, we know the lists would be *even better* if we provided a link for more information on the books. We’re working on a simple way to make it happen.

Co-presented by THE WASHINGTON CENTER FOR THE BOOK AT THE SEATTLE PUBLIC LIBRARY, COPPER CANYON PRESS, ELLIOTT BAY BOOK COMPANY, and SEATTLE UNIVERSITY. Having helped launch the publication of Sherman Alexie’s marvelous book of new and selected stories, Blasphemy (Grove Press) with a fabulous midnight signing featuring music, fry bread, and balloons as part of the evening, we venture to something both different and yet aligned in spirit to that evening and the way Sherman Alexie goes at things. With the help of the friends listed above, we present this evening which will in part be a reading of poems and stories. Sherman Alexie will be part of it, as will Spokane short-story writer Shann Ray, most recently author of American Masculine (Graywolf Press) and Spokane’s Jess Walter, most recently with his bestselling Beautiful Ruins (Harper).

Central to things will be this debut appearance by the amazing poet Natalie Diaz. She is here from her home in Mohave Valley, Arizona, with an incandescent first book of poems, When My Brother Was an Aztec (Copper Canyon Press). “This debut collection is a fast-paced tour of Mojave life. In darkly humorous poems, Diaz illuminates far corners of the heart.” – Publishers Weekly. Having a reading or appearance by the four of these is occasion in and of itself.

Putting some literal bounce in things will be a joint passion they all share: basketball. It’s a presence in their work and life, quite notably in much of Sherman Alexie’s public discourse. It’s been big in Natalie Diaz’s life, too. She was a star, all-conference guard at Old Dominion University (averaged 12.3 points her senior year, with special recognition for her defense) who played pro basketball in Europe and Asia before returning to live and work as director of a Mojave language revitalization program at the Fort Mojave Reservation. We’ll see what they all come up with. This should be fun. Free admission, thanks to the support of the Washington Center for the Book at the Seattle Public Library and Seattle University. For more information, please see www.spl.org or call (206) 386-4636 (or call Elliott Bay). The Connolly Center is at 550 Fourteenth Avenue, the corner of 14th & E. Cherry, with entry for this evening on E. Cherry.